Storage tank or container



June 28, 1932. M PR A 1,864,759

STORAGE TANK OR CONTAINER Filed Nov. 14. 1928 4 Sheets-Sheet l June 28, 1932. c. M. PRITCHARD STORAGE TANK OR CONTAINER 4 Sheets Sheet 2 Fil ed Nov. 14, 1928 o u a 0 a a 0 June 28, 1932. c M PRWCHARD I 1,864,759

STORAGE TANK OR CONTAINER Filed Nov. 14, 1928 4 Sheets-Sheet s W H9 W W fiziflg I a \1 U I 5/ a '5 L I I H I I 5 o Jwuewtof L, M. Frzfahar'd June 28, 1932. c. M. PRITCHARD STORAGE TANK OR CONTAINER 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed Nov. 14, 1928 gm 042141 01 6.- Fri ia'lmra' 'lllllllllllllliflflflllllilllllllllllIIIii!!! I IIIIIIIIIIIII I I! II lllllll| IIII III In Patented June 28, 1932 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

Application filed November 14, 1928. Serial No. 819,304.

This invention relates to a storage tank or container for liquids in exceptionally large quantities, and particularly for oil.

At the present time, oil is stored in large quantities in tanks on tank farms, which tanks have a capacity up to approximately eightly thousand barrels. It has been a desideratum to use larger tanks but up to the present time this has not been feasible since there has been no known means whereby such a tank could be made relatively inexpensively and whereby the stresses in the large circular tanks could be taken care of.

The difficulty is solved by the present invention which follows the theory that if a cylindrical or other form of tank is cut into segments along a longitudinal line, and then set any distance apart and so tying the sides together that the roof and bottom plates used will be brought into stress in order to hold such segments against the liquid pressure. A tank of course can follow the practice of the invention utilizing more than two segments and may be arranged so as to generally follow the outline of a large circle, square, rectangle or any other form desired. It is also an object of the present invention to provide a construction wherein the different essential parts may be constructed as units, to be erected or torn down as desired so that the device may be readily installed and also may be rendered portable.

Additional objects and advantages will become apparent from a consideration of the description following taken in connection with accompanying drawings illustrating an operative embodiment.

In said drawings 4 Figure 1 is a plan view of a tank or container constructed according to the invention,

Figure 2 is an enlarged plan view of a portion of the tank or container of Figure 1, part of the top being broken away to disclose interior details,

Figure 3 is a cross sectional view taken on the line 3-3 of Figure 2,

Figure 4 is a cross sectional view taken on the line 44 of Figure 2 Figure 5 is a cross sectlonal view taken on the line 5-5 of Figure 4,

Figure 6 is a cross sectional view taken on the plane of line 6-6 of Figure 4,

Figure 7 is a fragmentary plan view of a modified form, partly broken away to disclose interior details,

Figure 8 is a cross sectional view on the line 88 of Figure 7,

Figure 9 is a detail section taken on the line 99 of Figure 8,

Figure 10 is a detall section taken on the 1 line 10-10 of Figure 8,

Figure 11 is a fragmentary horizontal sectional view taken through a further modified orm, I

Figure 12 is a vertical sectional view taken on the plane 1212 of Figure 11, and

Figure 13 is a cross sectional view taken on the line 1313 of Figure 12.

Referring specifically to the drawings, the tank is generally designated 10 and the various parts thereof are preferably made of structural steel, riveted permanently together or removably bolted together, but so as to be leak proof, as desired and so that in the latter event, the device may be made in units to permit increase in the size of a tank or removal of the tank in sections or units from one position to another.

The tank or container 10 has any suitable number of vertical'walls as at 11 which are 30 semi-circular, and arranged so that each two walls 11 in alinement are in effect halves of a circle or cylinder which are spaced apart. Such walls 11 are bolted or riveted to top and bottom walls 12 and 13, each preferably composed of section 14 suitably bolted or riveted together.

Various trusses 15 or other means may be used to strengthen or reenforce the walls 12 and 13. At suitable intervals, vertical trusses or posts 16 are disposed between and fastened to the top and bottom plates 12 and 13.

Of prime importance is the provision of vertical plates or girders 17 which are arranged interiorly of the tank and substantially tangential to the walls 11 and adjoining walls 11 are fastened together and to such plates 17 by bolting or riveting as desired. Such plates or girders 17 are fastened to the top and bottom walls 12 and 13 by bolts or 2 i aseazae rivets. In order to strengthen the girders 17 and provide tension and compression and attaching fianges, angles 18 are riveted or bolted thereto as shown, certain of them in turn being riveted or bolted to the top and bottom Walls 12 and 13 and others being riveted or bolted, as shown in Figure 6, to the walls 11.

As shown in Figure 2, the trusses 17 at the corners of the tank, are preferably diagonally arranged.

Ihe container or tank 10 may be of any desired shape and as shown'in Figure 1, the semi-circular walls 11 follow the general out line of a rectangle. They may obviously also follow the outline of acircle or other preferably symmetrical figure.

As a result of the construction described, the sides of the tank made up of the semi-circular walls 11 are so connected together that the roof and bottom plates, through the medium of the girders 17, are brought into stress and hold such side walls against the liquid pressure, it being understood that the vertical girders 17 are suficiently strong to carry. the outward pull of the semi-circular walls or shells 11, to resultant reactions at the top and bottom of the tank to deliver them to the top and bottom plates. Obviously the amount of material involved in delivering these stresses, size of vertical girders or trusses, and the amount of additional plates in top and bottom of the enlarged tank to distribute such stresses properly, is entirely dependent on the size of the semi-circle as to diameter and height, one would use;

In the form described in Figures 1 to 6, the

v trusses 17 are located completely within the tank. A modified form is shown in Figures 7 to 10 wherein the principal difierence resides in the use of trusses or girders for the same purpose as those at 17 as indicated at 30, such trusses or girders 30 extending partly interiorly and partly exteriorly of the tank and the outer tension angles or flanges 31 thereof preferably for economy, being inclined upwardly and inwardly as shown in Figure 8. The top and bottom plates 32 and 33 in this form, respectively, have extensions 34 and 35 accommodating the mounting and fastening of the girders or trusses 17. In this form, it will be noted that it is not necessary to diagonally arrange a girder ortruss at a cor-1 nor, as is the case in the first form as suggested in Figure 2. I

Still another modified fOrm is-Suggested res 11 to 13. This-form omits the in Fi at 14. The

tailed description herein have been segments of circular tanks and it is believed that these would be the more economical, but, except where specifically limited thereto "in the appended claims, the in'vention contemplates the use of tanks of other than cylindrical form, that is wall sections of other curved figures such as elliptical and parabolic, and the segments of such tanks, as well as of the cylindrical tanks, may be more or less than a half of the tank form utilized.

Various changes may be resorted to provided they fall within the spirit and scope of the invention.

I claim as my invention A tank for storing liquid having a rectangular shape defined by a plurality of straight side walls connected together by a top and a bottom, each side wall comprising semi-circular sections in longitudinal alignment and bracing panels connecting adjacent ends of the semi-circular sections and projecting into the interior of the tank beyond the abutting ends of the semi-circular sections.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

CLIFFORD M. PRITCHARD.

use 0 posts or trusses such as 18 in the form I of Figures 1 to6, at the junction of the semicircular plates 11 in that form. In other words, as shown in the modified form of Figures '11 to 13, the semi-circular walls 40, equivalent to those at 11, are riveted or bolted directly as at 41 to a vertical trus or girder 42 like that at 17 in the form. In addition, and outwardly of the tank, a vertical 

